Rita's Scoop
by Lizzi-Mae21
Summary: Rita Skeeter  reporter extraordinaire  waited excitedly outside the Potter- Weasley residence, hoping for a lead. Finally she'd found her story.


It was a well known fact to almost everyone in Britain that Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley were in love-it had to be true if magazines and newspapers everywhere published it! You could never find one without the other! While most people were glad to see everyone's hero, Harry Potter, happy, it was old news. The Wizarding world was ready to read new material about the Golden couple. No one wanted to read another Harry-Ginny love story unless it was something _big,_ like a wedding announcement- of course a wedding wouldn't be much of a surprise. But a _fight_ would catch the public's interest and that would ensure Rita Skeeter the best ratings if she could get enough random facts to fabricate a plausible story.

Rita knew she deserved this opportunity. After all, she hadn't really had a good story about Harry Potter since Hermione Granger, had threatened to expose her to the ministry and he owed her. It was about time Rita's stories were back onto the front page of the paper every morning; she had to claim _her _rightful place that Betty Braithwaite had taken from her.

Rita transformed into her beetle form and waited outside of the Golden Couple's home. She'd been staking them out for days and her perseverance had paid off. Just yesterday she had learned that they were to leave on an extended holiday to France today. They'd decided to take a Muggle Airplane to get there and they were going to take a Muggle car to get to the airport. Rita didn't understand it, but she'd been around eccentric celebrities long enough not to query about their strange lifestyle. Right on schedule they were rushing out of the house, suitcase in hand. Rita jumped from her spot on the window ledge to cling to Harry's suitcase, where she planned to wait until they got to France.

After the whole mess at the airport was over (metal detectors, honestly!) and they'd gotten on the plane it took them about an hour and a half to get to Paris.

Finally they were settling into a hotel for the night- Muggle hotels were so boring!

"How are you love?" Harry asked, speaking to Ginny. _Ugh why did they have to be so lovey-dovey all of the time? This story will never sell! _Rita thought.

"I'm fine love, I'm glad to be back on the ground though- that airy-plane thing is scary! How do they keep them up without magic?"

"You are your father's daughter." Harry chuckled. "But aren't you hungry?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "We just ate before we left!"

"All right so food isn't high on the priority list right now. So what are we going to do then?"

"Hmmmmmm. How 'bout we see the Eiffel Tower then we get food."

"Sounds good love, I think I'll change before we go." Harry went to get change of clothes out of his bag and he noticed Rita sitting atop it, he brushed her off obviously not noticing her abnormal purple coloring or strange markings. _If the Granger girl were here my cover would've been blown! _Rita sighed in relief: obviously Potter wasn't one for making those kinds of observations.

The eager reporter followed Harry and Ginny around all day, but neither of them said or did anything that could even be twisted around and used to her advantage. Neither of them even seemed to notice that there were other people in Paris at all! There were plenty of men that turned Rita's head- surely Ginny would slip up and just _look _at one of them, but obviously the girl was blind. It seemed all she could see was the skinny man with messy black hair beside her.

At the restaurant, however, things _finally_ got interesting. Harry and Ginny had gone to a Muggle establishment for some privacy.

Harry turned around in his seat – Rita panicked, thinking he'd recognized her. Instead he leaned over and whispered something into Ginny's ear, who was sitting closely to him, instead of facing him.

Ginny suddenly jumped up from the table and turned to face Harry. There was a look of both anger and shock on her face. "Marry you?" she shrieked. "Are you insane? Has it ever occurred to you that I only just turned twenty-two? I'm at the peak of my Quidditch career Potter! Take me home! Now!" she fumed.

Harry hailed a cab to take them back to the hotel where they silently packed their things and took the plane back to Britain, leaving Rita stranded in France. She didn't care because she'd finally gotten her lead.

Harry and Ginny had been planning on taking a weekend getaway to Paris since they hadn't gone anywhere exciting. But one of the main reasons for getting away was so that Kreacher could get their new house ready for them to live in. Ginny had been feeling a bit off for a while now, but no matter how much Harry insisted that they could just stay home and do something special in Britain, she insisted that it would be fine and she was up for the trip. They had both agreed, however, that as soon as Ginny said that she needed to go home they would leave.

Just after arriving in Paris Harry knew it had been a bad idea. Ginny wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and try the French cuisine that Hermione had recommended, before they left, so he had agreed to stay for a few hours.

During dinner Harry looked back behind him and saw none other than Rita Skeeter watching them with her little beetle eyes.

He casually leaned over and whispered to Ginny "Rita Skeeter is watching us- let's have some fun with her."

Harry could see the mischievous grin playing at the corners of Ginny's mouth, but before he knew it she had jumped out of her seat and was glaring at him. "Marry you?" she shrieked. "Are you insane? Has it ever occurred to you that I only just turned twenty-two? I'm at the peak of my Quidditch career Potter! Take me home! Now!" she fumed.

Harry knew she meant that they really needed to go home. She did look like she was going to be ill and as soon as they could get away, they left.

Just as Harry suspected, the next day there was a story about them on the front page of _The Daily Prophet _written by Rita Skeeter.

_**Harry Potter- The Heart-Broken **_

_**Ginny Weasley- The Heart- Breaker**_

_Is Britain's happiest couple, Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley, really as happy as they seem? I've got the real story says Britain's most lovely and accurate reporter, Rita Skeeter. My sources reveal that late Saturday evening on August 21__st__ of 2002 Mr. Harry James Potter, Boy- Who-Lived, and Savoir of the Magical World took his former girlfriend, Miss Ginevra Weasley to Paris, to ask a very important question.__ Miss Weasley, Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, lives up to her fiery reputation. Instead of kindly letting our hero down, she jumped up and screamed at him!_

"_Marry you! That's completely insane! I'm so young! I'm at the peak of my Quidditch career! Why would I want to give that up for_ you_ and especially when blokes are just lining up to date me? I'm leaving!" she yelled as she stormed out of the exclusive French restaurant leaving Mr. Potter to cry over yet another loss in his young life. _

"_Now don't feel too sorry for Mr. Potter- I'm sure we all remember his former amore,_

_Miss Granger. I have no doubt his_ friend_ will be there to console him," comments Rita, grinning. "And I'm sure there's more drama to come!"_

"Ginny!" Harry yelled.

"Yeah, love?"

"You need to read this." He said grinning as he handed her the paper.

Ginny laughed "I think we should give our own article to _The Daily Prophet_." She grabbed his hand and they flooed to _The Daily Prophet's_ office.

"We need to write an announcement." The reception witch looked stunned when she saw Harry and Ginny together.

"Erm…for what?"

"Our wedding announcement." Ginny replied slyly, as Rita Skeeter walked into the room.

"Oh. Erm…when is it?"

"It was back in June." She waved her hand dismissively. "What do you think Harry should we say something about the baby too?" Ginny asked grinning at her husband.

Rita went pale and choked on the tea she'd been sipping "M-married! B-baby!"


End file.
